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Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's Origin, Chapter one
Chapter one of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's Origin. Plot ~Many years ago~ On a rainy day, a young Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was peacefully resting in his burrow with his family when suddenly the deluge flooded said burrow and flushed him out. He struggled with all his might to overcome the torrent, but it was hopeless until he bumped into a blade of grass and clung to it for dear life, eventually managing to climb out of the miniature stream onto higher ground, where he passed out. By the time he woke up, he found it was sunny and that he was laying on a man-made dirt-path, and he wasn't alone. "Here’s a dead mongoose, let’s have a funeral” a voice said, and Rikki could make out three humans: Rahhar, Jumeirah and a boy who Rikki would learn was called Teddy: Jumeirah's cousin, "no, let’s take him in and dry him, perhaps he isn’t really dead” Jumeirah objects and they took him into their house at the village, and after explaining to Meshua and Sanjay, the latter picked him up between his finger and thumb and discovers Rikki was not dead but half choked, so they wrapped him in cotton wool and warmed him over a little fire, and he opened his eyes and sneezed, "now don’t frighten him, and we’ll see what he’ll do" Sanjay instructs, but scaring a mongoose was the hardest thing to do in the world, because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity, the motto of all the mongoose family is “Run and find out” and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose, he looked at the cotton wool, decided that it was not good to eat, ran all round the table, sat up and put his fur in order, scratched himself, and jumped on Teddy’s shoulder, startling him, "don't be frightened Teddy, that’s his way of making friends” Rahhar assures, "ouch! he’s tickling under my chin" Teddy complains as Rikki-tikki looked down between the boy’s collar and neck, snuffed at his ear, and climbed down to the floor where he sat rubbing his nose, "good gracious, and that’s a wild creature: I suppose he’s so tame because we’ve been kind to him" Meshua notes, "all mongooses are like that: and it's not uncommon for people here in India to keep them as pets, especially for pest-control, as long as you don't pick him up by the tail, or try to put him in a cage, he’ll run in and out of the house all day long, let’s give him something to eat" Rahhar explains and they later gave Rikki a little piece of raw meat, Rikki-tikki liked it immensely and when it was finished he went outside and sat in the sunshine and fluffed up his fur to make it dry to the roots, then he felt better, “there are more things to find out about in this house than all my family could find out in all their lives, I shall certainly stay and find out" he chooses. For the rest of the day Rikki roamed all over the house. He nearly drowned himself in the bath-tubs, put his nose into the ink on a writing table, and burned it on the end of a cigar, for he climbed up into Sanjay's lap to see how writing was done. At nightfall he ran into the nursery where Nathoo used to sleep to watch how kerosene lamps were lighted, and when Jumeirah went to bed Rikki-tikki climbed up too. But he was a restless companion, because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the night, and find out what made it. Meshua, Rahhar and Sanjay came in, to look at their girl, and Rikki-tikki was awake on the pillow. "I don't like it: he may bite Jumeirah" Meshua voiced, "he'll do no such thing: mongooses are harmless, Jumeirah's safer with that little beast than if she had a bloodhound to watch her, if a snake came into the nursery now—” Rahhar began but Meshua shivered remembering what happened to their son Nathoo, "oh sorry" he apologizes, "it's alright, I just hope you're right" Meshua prays and they went to bed. Early in the morning Rikki-tikki came to early breakfast in the kitchen riding on Jumeirah’s shoulder, and they gave him a banana and some boiled eggs. He sat on all their laps one after the other, because every well-brought-up mongoose always hopes to be a house mongoose some day and have rooms to run about in; and Rikki-tikki’s mother (she used to live in the general’s house at Segowlee) had carefully told Rikki what to do if ever he came across white men. "You sure are an affectionate little guy aren't you?" Sanjay comments. After breakfast Rikki-tikki went outside to see what was to be seen. It was a large village: houses and other buildings of all shapes and sizes dotted here and there, the center had what looked like a fire-pit and a well, and the outer edges were surrounded by a wooden-fence clearly meant to keep wildlife out, in a field were some domesticated water-buffalo grazing, the leader identifying himself as Rama, and on one side of the village was a garden, complete with a patch of crops with bushes, as big as summer-houses, and Marshal Niel roses, lime and orange trees, clumps of bamboos, and thickets of high grass. Rikki-tikki licked his lips. “This is a splendid hunting-ground” he said to himself: he knew a human-garden was infested by all sorts of little critters he could hunt, and his tail grew bottle-brushy at the thought of it, and he scuttled up and down the garden, snuffing here and there 'til he heard very sorrowful voices in a thorn-bush, and fallowing it revealed a pair of grieving tailorbirds, undoubtedly a married couple by the presence of a nest with them: they had made a beautiful nest by pulling two big leaves together and stitching them up the edges with fibers, and had filled the hollow with cotton and downy fluff, the nest swayed to and fro, as they sat on the rim and cried, "what is the matter?” asked Rikki-tikki, "we are very miserable: one of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and Nag ate him” the male bird, named Darzee, explained, "hmm, that is very sad, but I am a stranger here: who is Nag?” Rikki asks, but Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without answering, for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss: a horrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet, then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, the big black Indian cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail, when he had lifted one-third of himself clear of the ground, he stayed balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion tuft balances in the wind, and he looked at Rikki-tikki with the wicked snake’s eyes that never change their expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of, "who is Nag?" he repeats, "I am Nag: the great God Brahm put his mark upon all our people, when the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun off Brahm as he slept, look, and be afraid!” he adds tauntingly, spreading out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the spectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook-and-eye fastening, he was afraid for the minute, but it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time, and though Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fed him on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose’s business in life was to fight and eat snakes, and Nag knew that too and, at the bottom of his cold heart, he was afraid, "well marks or no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a nest?" Rikki demands as his tail began to fluff up again, while Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the least little movement in the grass behind Rikki-tikki: he knew that mongooses living with humans meant venomous snakes were either evicted or slaughtered, and that will be a problem for him and his family, but he wanted to get Rikki-tikki off his guard, so he dropped his head a little and put it on one side, "let us talk: you eat eggs, why should not I eat birds?” he asks while at the same time something was creeping toward Rikki from behind, but Darzee spotted it, "behind you look behind you!” he screams and Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in staring: he jumped up in the air as high as he could go, and just under him whizzed by the head of another cobra, this one female: Nagaina, Nag’s wicked wife who's just as bad as him, she had crept up behind him as he was talking, to make an end of him, but thanks to Darzee, and hearing her hissing, he could tell Nag had brought a friend, he came down almost across her back and if he had been an old mongoose he would have known that then was the time to break her back with one bite; but he was inexperienced (his parents had intended to teach him, but the rain pretty much ruined that) and as a result, afraid of the terrible lashing return stroke of the cobra, he bit, indeed, but did not bite long enough and he jumped clear of the whisking tail, leaving Nagaina torn and angry, Rikki-tikki felt his eyes growing red and hot (when a mongoose’s eyes grow red, he is angry) and he sat back on his tail and hind legs like a little kangaroo, and looked all round him, and chattered with rage, but Nag and Nagaina had disappeared into the grass, when a snake misses its stroke it never says anything or gives any sign of what it means to do next, Rikki-tikki did not care to follow them for he did not feel sure that he could manage two snakes at once, so he trotted off to the gravel path near the house, and sat down to think. It was a serious matter for him. Stay tuned for Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's Origin, Chapter two Notes *Like the literature, Rikki got swept out of his own home by rain and was taken in by humans, plus Indian grey mongooses are often kept as pets in real life, for pest-control. *I'm gonna have Teddy, the boy who befriended Rikki, be Jumeirah's cousin here. *Indian cobras have appeared in the show, but none were incarnated as the murderous couple Nag and Nagaina, and due to sharing Shere Khan's hatred for humans, I doubt either of them would like being pets like Buldeo's cobra (they and Khan would make good allies for each other if they ever got to meet). Gallery Category:Fanfiction